Archive for the ‘Don Jackowski’ tag

The hot rod blogs have been buzzing all week with the sad news that a real East Coast luminary, and the exemplification of what kind of good folks this community produces all the time, passed away all too prematurely. In this case, it’s New Jersey native Don “Flatdog” Jackowski, whose nickname suggests his accomplishments in modifying the eternal flathead Ford V-8, died Monday just after undergoing a heart procedure. He was only 56 years old.

“We had just worked for about 11 or 12 hours on Saturday on the race car,” whispered author and rodding historian A.B. Shuman, Don’s partner in Flatdog Extreme II, their 1923 Model T altered powered by Don’s supercharged, 303-cu.in. flathead, running on gas. “We joked for a minute or two about the procedure he was supposed to have. He told me, “We’ve got a welder, we ought to do it right here.’ I was waiting for his call on Monday to see if we would work on the car again that night. But instead, it was his wife calling. I’m still stunned. He was a guy who took on the mission of working on this old, outmoded engine that most guys put in their cars today just because it’s nostalgic, and instead decided to get the most out of it. He rejected conventional wisdom. He would talk with (the late) Barney Navarro all the time, and guys like Mark Kirby from Motor City Flathead, who put him in touch with a engineer from Ricardo. Don would say, “Here I am, a guy with no education other than high school, and I’m talking combustion-chamber design with a Ricardo engineer.’”

Don Jackowski was born in Whippany, New Jersey, lived for years in Rockaway Township, and was a partner in Denville Transmission, his magic workshop. Go check out the H.A.M.B., and you’ll grasp how broadly his reputation spread, due in part to his blown flathead 1934 Ford coupe for the street, whose engine, built at the transmission shop, was “borrowed” for Flatdog II after a loose rod bolt ventilated the original race engine, and was still stout enough for easy 10.50s on gas. Surviving are his wife, Karen, daugher, Cory, a dean’s list student at Rutgers University, and son, Zack, a master fabricator and engineering student at MIT. Services are tomorrow at the Norman Dean Home for Services in Denville. Details are on the funeral director’s Web site, www.normandean.com, or you can call 973-627-1880.